Iowa led the nation in attendance

[belezabro]

Iowa on BTN ‏@BTN_Iowa 7m7 minutes ago
For the ninth (!) straight season, @Hawks_Wrestling led nation in attendance. Impressive!

BTN article

 

[HawkTalk3]

Link has chart. Iowa out paced Penn State by 600 fans/dual

http://iawrestle.com/2015/03/16/hawkeyes-lead-ncaa-attendance-for-9th-straight-season/

 

[SPOONER]

No Minnesota, Penn State, Ohio State or Oklahoma State on the schedule and we still lead.

 

[WEH8ST8HAWK]

Originally posted by HawkTalk3:

Link has chart. Iowa out paced Penn State by 600 fans/dual

Wait til next year when all the powers come to Iowa City. Get on the ball people and buy your season tickets for next year and you get first dibs at the Big Ten tournament tickets.

 

[HoundedHawk]

Who won it ten years ago?

 

[gdcubby14]

Originally posted by HoundedHawk:
Who won it ten years ago?

My complete guess is Minnesota?
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[WEH8ST8HAWK]

Originally posted by HoundedHawk:
Who won it ten years ago?

Are you talking attendance? If you're talking Nationals, Okie State won it. Iowa was 7th. Which was the straw that broke the camels back for Jimmy Z.


This post was edited on 3/16 1:03 PM by WEH8ST8HAWK

 

[hawkeyesports92]

Originally posted by WEH8ST8HAWK:

Originally posted by HawkTalk3:

Link has chart. Iowa out paced Penn State by 600 fans/dual

Wait til next year when all the powers come to Iowa City. Get on the ball people and buy your season tickets for next year and you get first dibs at the Big Ten tournament tickets.

I think I read something that Penn State isn't on our schedule again. Just having first dibs at the conference tournament should help numbers.

 

[SPOONER]

Originally posted by hawkeyesports92:

Originally posted by WEH8ST8HAWK:

Originally posted by HawkTalk3:

Link has chart. Iowa out paced Penn State by 600 fans/dual

Wait til next year when all the powers come to Iowa City. Get on the ball people and buy your season tickets for next year and you get first dibs at the Big Ten tournament tickets.

I think I read something that Penn State isn't on our schedule again. Just having first dibs at the conference tournament should help numbers.

Next year's conference schedule should simply be the reverse of this year's, home and away.

This post was edited on 3/17 10:13 AM by SPOONER

 

[hawkeyesports92]

Originally posted by SPOONER:

Originally posted by hawkeyesports92:

Originally posted by WEH8ST8HAWK:

Originally posted by HawkTalk3:

Link has chart. Iowa out paced Penn State by 600 fans/dual

Wait til next year when all the powers come to Iowa City. Get on the ball people and buy your season tickets for next year and you get first dibs at the Big Ten tournament tickets.

I think I read something that Penn State isn't on our schedule again. Just having first dibs at the conference tournament should help numbers.

Next year's conference schedule should simply be the reverse of this year's, home and away.

This post was edited on 3/17 10:13 AM by SPOONER

Just passing on what I heard but I hope you are right.

 

[pumpdog20]

The thing I don't like is that Penn State was the higher watched opponent for OSU, Ok st and Rutgers. 3 places Iowa also went to. Sure, you can understand a little for OSU and Rutgers considering the shorter distance for PSU fans, but if Iowa is not careful, PSU is going to take the title of the "it" team. Iowa are the Beatles of wrestling, I'd like to keep it that way.

 

[Vallholl]

I thought I read somewhere that Iowa would return the favor and wrestle AT PSU for non-conference. All in all, crazy that as many people went to see that home schedule. I am really excited about next year's home schedule. Hope it fits into my childrens' stuff so I can go...

hawkeyesports92 posted on 3/17/2015...
I think I read something that Penn State isn't on our schedule again. Just having first dibs at the conference tournament should help numbers.

 

[HawkTitan]

Originally posted by WEH8ST8HAWK:

Originally posted by HoundedHawk:
Who won it ten years ago?

Are you talking attendance? If you're talking Nationals, Okie State won it. Iowa was 7th. Which was the straw that broke the camels back for Jimmy Z.


This post was edited on 3/16 1:03 PM by WEH8ST8HAWK

Okie State also won the attendance battle that year:

Top Average Attendance
[/B]Place School No. Home Duals Average
1. Oklahoma State Eight 3,782
2. Iowa Seven 3,569
3. Penn State Six 2,763
4. Minnesota Seven 2,673
5. Lehigh Seven 2,254
6. Iowa State Seven 2,069
7. Cornell Five 1,550
8. Ohio State Five 1,472
9. Michigan Six 1,323
10. Illinois Five 1,033
11. Michigan State Seven 994
12. Hofstra Five 945

 

[LVCabChronicles]

So Iowa avgs 8358 this year and ten years ago the nations top draw was OSU at under 4K? So, wrestling is increasing in popularity, or what's going on there?

 

[sloehawk]

Originally posted by LVCabChronicles:
So Iowa avgs 8358 this year and ten years ago the nations top draw was OSU at under 4K? So, wrestling is increasing in popularity, or what's going on there?

Some of those numbers are probably relatively close to today's numbers for several schools, but the reason for Iowa's poor attendance was people were jumping ship on Jimmy Zalesky's guys and their "style". They were on a downward trajectory, the wrestling was "boring", and the results were poor, certainly by Iowa standards.

The 7th place finish certainly contributed to Jimmy's eventually being let go, but IMO the attendance and the pace of Iowa's wrestling was the key factor. People didn't want to watch the "product" and the effort from the guys he was putting out there, the decline just became steeper, all the way to 7th.

The wrestling from Iowa is better today IMO, but the overall product in College Wrestling is worse due to the constant hand fighting, lack of offense everywhere (feet, from top), stalling, etc. The "average" wrestling match of today just seems more boring to me, and many others I would presume.

This year Okie State average 3,002 per meet, for 5th place.

Iowa State was 7th with 2,369 per meet, and Northern Iowa was 8th with 1,946.

Penn State has been higher certainly since wrestling was invented there 5 years ago

, as was Ohio State this year with a real good team.


The 2nd thru 5th teams for average attendance this year all had one thing in common....................... Iowa wrestled at their place.

 

[Vallholl]

Wrestling is increasing in popularity at Penn St and Iowa. I think everyone is about the same. Without looking it up, it seems like Iowa has been averaging about 8K for almost the entire Brands era. I'd like to see attendance through the years from Kurdelmeier to present day. I couldn't find the attendance information but ran across this article.

Brands also rejuvenated the Iowa wrestling fan base. When he arrived in 2006-07, Iowa's average attendance nearly doubled to an NCAA-best 6,740. The Hawkeyes have led the nation in attendance every year since, averaging better than 8,000 fans for four straight years and an NCAA record 9,014 in 2011-12.

linky

 

[SPOONER]

Originally posted by LVCabChronicles:
So Iowa avgs 8358 this year and ten years ago the nations top draw was OSU at under 4K? So, wrestling is increasing in popularity, or what's going on there?

I think you need to look deeper than just the top. It is interesting that at #5 and #10, the current attendance numbers are up significantly.

 

[Jaybird319]

Nationally wrestling has grown steadily since low point of mid 90. If I remember correctly, Mississppi state is the lone hold out. I imagine that will change in a few years as neighboring states wrestling programs continue to flourish and mature.

Youth wrestling is where attendence starts and ends imo, if a college program can't get local/ regional youths to attend they steadily lose the casual adults (1-2) duals a year. In the end there will be only the diehards in attendence w numbers in very low hundreds per dual for D1. D3 needs the regional youths even worse. I've attended many D3 duals in the midwest w attendence numbers south of 30-40 people. Fargo is still the largest tournament in the world last time I looked.

Overall I think many college do a poor job of marketing duals and tournaments. All the social media avenues available to programs, one would think a little grass root efforts would significantly impact attendences numbers sub top 5 or top 10 teams